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Stephen Hendry believes leaving the Crucible on a permanent basis should be out of the question as the Betfred.com World Championship organisers consider the future of their event.

However the seven-time world champion would welcome a system which would see up to five venues staging the event on a rotational basis.

Stephen Hendry

Hendry, who began his campaign with a thrilling 10-7 victory against Mark Williams on Sunday said: “Nobody would like to leave the Crucible, but if it has to leave the Crucible I would like to see a British Open golf type of arrangement, where you have four or five venues and you alternate them so you know you’re always coming back to the Crucible.”

He added: “Like St Andrews in golf, it would be like going home to the home of snooker.

“If there were plans to move it away, I would like to see that system. I think it would work.”

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Hendry strung together five frames in a row to battle back from 7-5 down.

He was rated a 50-1 outsider before the tournament began, after a poor run of results.

He turned 40 in January, but insists his tournament-winning days are not necessarily over.

Discussing those long odds, Hendry said, with a slight exaggeration: “I haven’t won a match for six months and I haven’t won a tournament for 16 years so what do you expect?”

However nobody has enjoyed more Crucible success than the Scot, and he added: “If there’s one place I know how to win it’s here. But I’ve only won one match so I don’t want to be getting too excited.”